The Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu is a chapter of the Book of Xia (Chinese language: Xià Shū) section of the Book of Documents, one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. The chapter describes the legendary Yu the Great and the provinces of his time. Most modern scholars believe it was written in the fifth century BCE or later.
Contents and significance
The chapter can be divided into two parts. The first describes the nine provinces of Ji (冀), Yan (兗), Qing (青), Xu (徐), Yang (揚), Jing (荊), Yu (豫), Liang (梁), and Yong (雍), with the improvement works conducted by Yu in each province. The second enumerates Yu's surveys of the rivers of the empire, followed by an idealized description of five concentric domains of five hundred li each, from the royal domain (甸服
Diānfú) around the capital to the remote wild domain (荒服
Huāngfú).
Later, this would become important in the justification for the concept of
Tianxia or "All Under Heaven" as a means to back up the territorial and other claims of successive Chinese dynasties.
Origin and versions
Although the
Yu Gong is traditionally dated to the
Xia dynasty (), most modern scholars agree that the work is considerably more recent.
Tradition dictates that
Confucius (551–479 BCE) compiled the
Book of Documents and included the
Yu Gong, although it is more likely that this was done later.
Wang Guowei suggested in his that the
Yu Gong was written at the start of the
Zhou dynasty, but most scholars now agree with the view of
Gu Jiegang that it is a product of the Warring States,
Qin dynasty or
Han Dynasty periods.
References to maritime history in the Analects of Confucius and the Yu Gong suggest their origin in a single culture while the appearance of the West River (西河) and South River (南河) in the latter indicate that the author came from the State of Wei.[《禹贡》一书，古今地理志之祖者。]
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